Most observers are outraged that former Yorba Linda Assemblyman Mike Duvall either a) had an affair with a lobbyist or two and then bragged about it in lurid detail to a colleague as the men awaited the beginning of an Appropriations Committee hearing, not knowing that the microphone on the desk was “hot”; or b) made up stories about sexual conquests and then bragged about them before the aforementioned hearing.

Whatever the truth, it’s a good thing the disgraced Assembly man resigned.

As the story broke midweek, everyone who paid attention to this end-of-session scandal – and it was hard to avoid given the sordid details and the widely publicized, hilarious video of news reporters chasing Duvall through the halls of the Capitol building – focused on Duvall’s disgusting behavior and on the troubling nature of a legislator being literally in bed with a lobbyist (or two) who has business before his committee. We know Sacramento politics is not for the faint of heart, but the really disgusting stuff usually happens in motel rooms and behind closed doors in budget committee meetings.

The harrumphing is continuing, and the speaker of the Assembly is beginning an ethics probe because of the lobbyist connection. This is fine and to be expected, but the strangest new twist is that the lobbyist who is Duvall’s alleged sexual partner is denying the affair. So is Duvall, who according to a statement posted Thursday on his Web site, claims to have engaged in male braggadocio: “I want to make it clear that my decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs. My offense was engaging in inappropriate story-telling, and I regret my language and choice of words. The resulting media coverage was proving to be an unneeded distraction to my colleagues, and I resigned in the hope that my decision would allow them to return to the business of the state.”

The tall-tale explanation usually would be laughable, but in the case of Duvall, it might actually be believable. I was talking to a member of the O.C. legislative delegation when the story broke Wednesday and that lawmaker suggested that, given Duvall’s personality, he might have been telling a whopper. Duvall is a gregarious, back-slapping, story-telling son-of-a-gun – a nice-seeming blowhard who loves to tell fanciful stories. So it’s almost plausible that this aging assemblyman with the body of a turnip fabricated an affair with a younger hottie to impress the boys in the figurative locker room. Sacramento politics is reminiscent of college or high-school politics – with its petty back-biting, fleeting allegiances, endless posturing and boasting – except that the big men (and women) on campus control a budget of more than 100 billion bucks!

To his credit, Duvall resigned quickly rather than dragging out the whole debacle. That had to be tough. His Assembly post no doubt was the best gig of a lifetime for a Yorba Linda insurance salesman. There is something intoxicating about roaming the halls of the Capitol with a subservient staff in tow.

The broader point is that government should be as limited as possible, so that folks like Duvall can do as little damage as possible. Libertarian thinkers have always noted that government positions have always attracted a distorted sort of person – the type who wants to exert power over other people. I suppose that’s human nature.

Another funny element about the Duvall fall from grace: He had championed himself as a “family values” guy who was standing up for the supposedly embattled traditional family against various supposed assaults from Sacramento Democrats. I have no idea if he believes this rhetoric, which is standard-issue stuff if one happens to be an Orange County Republican legislator. The state should get out of what passes for family issues these days, and let individuals and their own consciences and churches deal with matters such as gay marriage and divorce. Unfortunately, the Christian Right still dominates GOP politics, as it uses religious faith in service to its real agenda of political and cultural change. You can’t blame the lefties – who also want to use government power to advance their social and cultural causes – to yell “hypocrite” every time a Mark Sanford, Larry Craig or Mike Duvall forgets to keep it all zippered.

The good news: County Supervisor Chris Norby, facing term limits and who was about to waste his talent on a run for the Orange County clerk-recorder position – a post that should not even be an elected position – has already announced that he will run in the special election to fill the Duvall seat. Norby has some harmless personal quirks, but he is one of the most principled limited-government politicians I know. He wants to advocate redevelopment reform, promote a transportation policy based on reality (rather than social engineering) and judge all government programs by their results rather than their intentions.

Chris has been an unwavering supporter of property rights and freedom on the Board of Supervisors and, before that, on the Fullerton City Council – and he has been willing to buck his own party to stay consistent with his small-l libertarian principles. And Norby is one of the few Republicans I know who doesn’t mess with all that silly religious-right posturing. So the Duvall affair, or non-affair or whatever it was, could have a silver lining. Not that even the best politician can make any difference in the Sacramento circus.

All in all, the real problem isn’t that a local legislator either slept with a lobbyist or pretended to have slept with one, but that the whole state government is engaged in what H.L. Mencken aptly called an advance auction of stolen goods. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that many of those who do the auctioning have such little respect for themselves, their office, the government or female lobbyists.

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